London Archives - Page 4 of 158

28Feb

By Klervi GavetNo Comments

London

Last and First Men – Coronet Theatre

At a time when humankind seems increasingly determined to write itself out of its own timeline, Neon Dance’s Last and First Men feels uncannily well placed. This 65-minute movement piece is a resonant speculative journey, with at its heart an act of listening: to the future, to the deep past, and to the fragile thread that still connects them. Based on Olaf Stapledon’s visionary 1930s sci-fi novel, the piece imagines a far future in which the last remnants of humanity reach back across two billion years to address us, the “first men”. Under the inspired direction of Adrienne Hart, the dancers — Fukiko Takase, Aoi Nakamura and Kelvin Kilonzo — perform with an otherworldly, masterful precision that feels recognisably human yet unmistakably other, as if the genus Homo had remained while th...

28Feb

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

16 Postcodes – King’s Head Theatre

Like all big cities, London has always been a challenging place to live and work. Smog, sewage, soot and squalor have held the city together for centuries. However, the past 20 years has seen a dramatic escalation in factors that largely render the capital an exclusive urban enclave. London’s once cosmopolitan centre is now only affordable for a super-rich, culturally hollow, elite echelon of society. The shocking expense of being alive, blended with a housing crisis, stagnant wages and a generous slug of austerity, means that a simple day out in London becomes a Hunger Games battle for sanity and a surviving bank balance. Darwin’s Theory of Evolution has become crueller than nature, with gentrification, zero-hours contracts and inherited wealth skewing the odds. Writing review...

28Feb

By Charles PipeNo Comments

London

Savage – White Bear Theatre

Savage is admiral in its efforts to spread information about the atrocities committed by lesser-known Nazi war criminal Carl Værnet, and his post-war escape to Argentina. Værnet was a Danish doctor who attempted to “cure” homosexuality, and his methods involved human experimentation on concentration camp inmates. After the war, he was captured and detained in a British prisoner of war camp, but was able to escape, with the British and Danish governments perhaps even aiding him in starting a new life in Argentina. Gay conversion therapy, of which Værnet was a proponent, is legal in the UK and Denmark. Despite the play’s noble intentions, Savage is not particularly enlightening or powerful. As an exposé of Værnet, it provides only the most surface level information, and as a drama it fall...

The Village Where No One Suffers – Jack Studio Theatre

27Feb

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

The Village Where No One Suffers – Jack Studio Theatre

Four years on from the start of the disastrous and unnecessary Ukraine war, which has brought so much suffering to the Ukrainian people and changed the world for all of us, is a good time to stage a theatrical drama about these troubled times. But this play written by Polia Polozhentseva and playing at the Jack Studio Theatre is a very odd one to choose. It is located in a village in rural Ukraine which has barely been affected by the war; no missile strikes, no deaths or injuries, no damaged buildings and no conscription. Lukyana has returned from her comfortable life in Poland to visit her late grandmother's house, where she has fond childhood memories of growing up with her grandparents. She is responding to her grandmother's wish that she should spend some time in ...

26Feb

By Zain RussellNo Comments

London

Dracula – National Youth Theatre

Everyone knows the classic Gothic horror tale of Dracula, first written by Bram Stoker, but the National Youth Theatre offers a bold reinterpretation that feels almost like two plays in one. The first act remains largely faithful to the spirit of the original story. Sasha Jagsi commands centre stage as the young woman who has been bitten by Dracula and is visited nightly as he continues to drain her blood. Her portrayal captures the terrifying uncertainty of a character questioning her own sanity: is she unwell, losing her mind, or actually dying? Through visions, night terrors and sleepwalking episodes, the audience is drawn into her psychological unravelling. Jagsi’s slow, deliberate movements and her haunting, bewitching stare out towards the audience create an unsettling atmosphere....

Evening All Afternoon – Donmar Warehouse

26Feb

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

Evening All Afternoon – Donmar Warehouse

Jennifer (Anastasia Hille) is about to marry the never-seen John and become stepmother to Delilah (Erin Kellyman) in Anna Ziegler’s Evening All Afternoon. The play switches between extended addresses to the audience and scenes playing out between the two women grappling at being thrown together. Her father’s remarriage leaves Delilah consumed by grief over her mother’s death, leading to hallucination as she speaks with her dead mother. Delilah’s cheekiness pushing and testing Jennifer, feeling at liberty to really press on issues contrast strongly with Jennifer’s primness, never even untucking her blouse as disdainfully noted by Delilah. Delilah’s mother was younger than her father, Jennifer is a full decade older than John. Boomer and Gen Z and there is a gap there at once, with ...

Werewolf Sighted In Port Talbot – Old Red Lion

26Feb

By Charles PipeNo Comments

London

Werewolf Sighted In Port Talbot – Old Red Lion

Werewolf Sighted In Port Talbot is a darkly comedic horror play from playwright Andy Sellers. This astounding debut play premiered at GrimFest in 2025 and now returns to the Old Red Lion for a short run that you should go out of your way to get tickets for. The play follows couple Ffion and Billy on a camping trip in the Welsh countryside. They are there so that Billy can finally witness Ffion’s monthly transformation into a werewolf. With the stress of this pivotal moment building, and with dark secrets lurking beneath the surface, their relationship is tested. Playwright Andy Sellers also plays Billy, alongside Lucy Havard as Ffion. They perfectly deliver the script’s naturalistic dialogue with believable nuance, such that it real feels like observing a snapshot of a real couple. ...

25Feb

By Charles PipeNo Comments

London

Siblings: Dreamweavers – Soho Theatre

Siblings are a sketch and character comedy duo consisting of real-life siblings Maddy and Marina Bye. In their latest show, Dreamweavers, they play scientists who have invented a device that can projects people’s dreams. Using the audience as clinical trial participants, the duo project (i.e. act out, as sketches) a variety of dreams, ranging from the nightmarish to the absurd to the Freudian. This sci-fi B-movie -esque framing device is fun and provides a broad narrative throughline that gives something tangible to latch onto amidst the delightful chaos of the show. Dreamweavers took a little while to win me over, but once I was on board I had a wonderful time. At first, I found the sketches to be too random and surreal for my tastes. Obviously, this randomness suits the theme of the s...

24Feb

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

Blink – King’s Head Theatre

Phil Porter’s Blink at King’s Head Theatre is a darkly funny and tender meditation on loneliness, voyeurism and the ways in which we connect in today's modern world. Sophie’s father has died, leaving her spiralling, falling back in on herself and showing all the signs of mental health issues. Jonah has run away from the religious commune he was raised in after finding a bag of thousands of pounds his mother left him after she died. Through a series of small coincidences, Jonah unknowingly rents the flat below Sophie. Not knowing Jonah at all, Sophie sends him a baby monitor, a screen hooked up to a camera in her flat and he starts to watch here in small doses and quickly moves to constant viewing. Despite their closeness, just a floor apart, their actual paths never cross. Jonah takes t...

The Story of Peer Gynt: An Evening with Kåre Conradi – The Coronet Theatre

24Feb

By Ralph JeffreysNo Comments

London

The Story of Peer Gynt: An Evening with Kåre Conradi – The Coronet Theatre

The Story of Peer Gynt is part lecture, part show and altogether brilliant. On a stage that is almost entirely bare, save a single chair turned away from the audience, Kåre Conradi welcomes us. He begins to tell us a bit about Ibsen, about Peer Gynt and about the Norwegian award named after him. In the space of just over an hour, he promises he will take us through the story. He does this by switching between a description of the plot in the manner of an engaged lecturer and sudden moments of dramatisation, where – with a surprising ease – he takes on the emotions, ambitions and character of Peer. Most of these moments he gives to us in English. Occasionally, he slips into the original Norwegian, though never without giving those of us who can’t speak it a clear sense of what he is sayi...